Hey United, Flyers Have Rights and They Want ‘Em

We thought we’d take this oversold United Airlines flight opportunity to highlight the literal knock-down, drag-out bad practices that still plague commercial airlines. Despite being updated just this January, perhaps the Department of Transportation needs to issue another update to its laudable Flyers Bill of Rights to include the right to the seat you bought, the right to not be dragged by your wrists down the aisle, and the right to not have your character assassinated in order to justify the airlines bad behavior. The whole incident highlights the obvious and consequential need for airline security and crew staff to be trained much better on a whole number of scores. Clearly the Department of Transportation didn’t force them to, but it turns out their costumers can. It’s an important and promising lesson, and we should use it as we continue to fight rampant profiling in the air.